


Roadside

by TalesOfOnyxBats



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Awkward Flirting, Bad Flirting, Car Trouble, F/F, Flirting, Humor, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25878331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TalesOfOnyxBats/pseuds/TalesOfOnyxBats
Summary: ATLA Femslash WeekDay 4: Road Trip. Azula and Zuko are on a road trip. They see a car on the side of the road, Azula has them pull over to assist the stranded driver.
Relationships: Azula/Jin (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	Roadside

She meets her on the side of the road. Smoke is billowing out from under the hood of the car and the girl looks completely and thoroughly stressed. The woman cusses and slams her fists on the car. 

“Pull over, Zuzu.” Azula says. 

“She can call a tow truck or something.” 

“We’re not in a hurry.” Azula gives a dismissive wave. 

He rolls his eyes and slows the car. 

“Since when do you care about helping the downtrodden and unlucky.” 

Since the misfortune began having such adorable and pretty faces. Since the misfortune started falling under her ideal type. “I’ve always cared.” Azula shrugs. 

“Yeah sure, and dad can mow the lawn without cussing once.” He pauses. “Why do you really care?”

“Maybe, Zuzu, I’d like to show off how much better I am with cars than you.” She unlocks her door. 

“If you’re so much better,” he calls as she walks towards the driver in distress, “you can get behind the wheel and drive the rest of the way to the campground!” 

Azula tosses a look over her shoulder. “Nope!” She says it with a nauseating sweetness. “It’s you’re turn to drive Zuzu, you lost tic-tac-toe.”

She hears him grumble to himself, something-something about always losing tic-tac-toe. 

“I am going to help you fix your car.” Azula greets. “You can start by telling me how long have you been stuck here and what you were doing before the breakdown.” 

“Ho-ou-eers.” The girl half-groan, half-wines. “It’s hot as hell and I’m hungry.” 

“Zuzu and I have some snacks.” She gestures to their RV.

“And here I was always told to watch out for strangers in white vans offering candy. No one warned me about weirdos in RVs offering snacks.” 

She hears Zuko chortle. 

“I am not a weirdo.” Azula flushes. 

“Well you definitely aren’t part of the roadside assistance team that I called.” 

“Yes well, I can help. Just tell me what you were doing before your car broke down.”

“I was driving.” She quirks a brow.

Tears are now running down Zuko’s cheeks as he doubles over laughing. 

Azula’s face reddens that much further. With a sigh the girl says, “alright, alright, I was just kidding. Believe it or not, you’ve already helped me.”

“I haven’t done anything.” Azula grumbles. 

“Look, I was having a rough day and I needed a good laugh.” She slings an arm over Azula’s shoulder. “If you think that you can fix it, have at it.” 

Azula presses her lips into a thin line before admitting, “I cannot fix it.” 

“Yeah...I didn’t think so.” The girl gives another drawn out sigh. “Guess I’ll be spending the night here.”

“The night!?” 

“Yeah, I can’t afford the tow truck I called, but my cousin is a mechanic and he’s gonna come out and give me a hand.”

Azula nods, “our RV can fit five people, it’s probably more comfortable than your car.” 

Zuko’s laughter comes to an abrupt halt. “But what about the campsite?”

“It’ll be there when we’re ready for it. What’s the hurry, Zuzu?” Usually it is she who likes to stick rigidly to a schedule and he who demands desperately that she should lighten up. “You said that you liked spontaneity.” 

“Fine, we can spend the night here.” Zuko caves. He pulls the RV further off of the road, kicking up desert sand as he does. 

“I’m Jin, by the way.” 

“Azula.” She holds her hand out. Jin takes it. “The grumpy one is my brother, Zuko. But you can just call him Zuzu.”

“Zuko!” He shouts. “You both can call me Zuko!”

“Zuzu.” Azula whispers with a sly smile. 

Jin stretches her arms and follows Azula to the RV where they settle into a rather comfortable conversation.

It turns out that they are heading to the same campground, albeit with vastly different goals in mind. Azula and Zuko are driving across the country trying to hit as many haunted and supernatural locations as possible--their latest task being UFO sighting. Jin simply wants to follow a sense of wanderlust and adventure. 

“I want to rediscover myself, ya know?”

Azula does not know, she is one-hundred percent fine with herself as she is, but she nods anyways, “I do, yes.”

Zuko rolls his eyes again and mutters, “really?”

Azula nudges him with her elbow. This flirting thing is finally coming naturally for her and she isn’t about to let him ruin it!

“I know this is so typical,” she continues. “But I just had a break up. I’m so tired of men--you’re fine, Zuzu--and I just want to get away from it.”

“What about women, are you tired of women?” Azula asks. In an instant her phone dings with a message from Zuko,  _ “real smooth” _ . And then a second. “ _ 👌  _ _ expert flirting _ .”  She could kill him. 

Jin chuckles. “It depends, is this woman helpful and kind of an absolute dork?”

“No.” Azula replies, but after mulling it over for a moment changes her mind. “Yes.” She backtracks a second time. “This woman is helpful but is rather high on the social ladder.” 

Jin laughs a little louder while Zuko mumbles, “every time that woman talks, she drops a rung.” 

Azula kicks him under the table, which is much easier to do in the cramped space of the RV. 

“So you guys are looking for aliens?”

“Aliens, bigfoot, mothman, ghosts, we’ll take anything really.” Azula shrugs. 

“I might be interested in tagging along for that. Who knows, maybe I’ll someone really supernatural. Someone…” she wriggles her brows. “Hauntingly gorgeous.” 

“Oh, God.” Zuko fake gags. “You’re both dreadful at this.”

“Who says that we aren’t doing it on purpose?” Azula asks. 

“She might be...you, nice cover up, I don’t buy it.” 

“You guys are a riot!” Jin declares. “I’m kind of glad that I got stranded out here.” 

**.oOo.**

And as coincidental as it had been that they had been heading in the same direction, it turns out that they were heading home the same way. Though Jin attends a university on the other side of town, her apartment isn’t all that far from Azula’s house.

The road trip had been a huge success. Though they’d seen no signs of UFO’s nor bigfoot, Azula is fairly certain that they’d managed to spend the night a haunted hotel room. They’d spent the night wandering the hotel’s old hallways with EVP equipment and Jin’s makeshift ouija board. 

It had been a success as far as getting to know Jin went. And by the time they began their return trip, she’d had her first kiss. It was over the campfire; it had been such a delight to see Zuko’s face bunch up in disgust when she licked the marshmallow off of Jin’s lips. She’d always imagined that her first kiss would be cleaner, more romantic. But she isn’t going to argue with a fond memory. 

And so many of them splay themselves over the pages of Jin’s scrapbook. 

Over lunch in a cafe, they begin planning next summer’s adventure, a trip overseas. Zuzu will simply have to go along with it, or take Mai on a trip of their own. Azula anticipates a double date. 

Azula finishes her coffee and sets it aside. 

“Ready to head home?” Jin asks. 

“I am, yes.” She follows Jin to her car. 

The woman sticks the key in the ignition and turns. The car wheezes and sputters but refuses to turn over. She tries again and a third time. “This thing is still a piece of shit.”


End file.
